When we discuss about tools as software application, I think it is important to discuss about content and service associated with it. This will be particularly important when we discuss about the applications of these tools for specific domains and target audience. I am sure this was in your mind but would like to make this objective more explicit.
Atanu
-----Original Message-----
From: public-mw4d-request@w3.org [mailto:public-mw4d-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Stephanie Rieger
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 6:46 PM
To: public-mw4d@w3.org Group
Subject: Tools methodology
Hello,
I've volunteered to begin thinking about the Wiki's tools section and how best to develop a criteria to assess the suitability of each tool.
For reference, here is what is currently posted on the Wiki in regards to the goals of the overall activity.
"It is critical to develop a real landscape analysis, investigating the exact domain of applicability of the different tools, how they relate one to another, what is their target audience, what are their requirements for usage, etc. As part of these investigations, the growing importance of social networks such as twitter or facebook in developing countries and their potential roles in social development will be studied. This document will define a methodology to review mobile tools available for the different technologies, develop a landscape analysis based on the definition of taxonomy or matrix of factors to consider to select a tool. The document will also identify gaps, in software, features or standardization, that prevent more people from deploying content and services." [http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Mw4d_tools
]
Stephane has suggested I post this to the group for comments. We also plan to discuss this further on Monday during the meeting. The list of assessment criteria below is preliminary...just to get the conversation started.
Category - SMS, MMS, mobile web, voice, service etc.
Cost to the organisation - One-off cost, subscription, cost of associated tools or components etc.
License - Is the tool (or aspects of it) open source? Are there license restrictions?
Roadmap - Are new features planned? Is the tool relatively future- proof from a technology point of view?
User base - Is the tool proven? How many existing users/deployments?
Are there case studies available?
Ramp-up - Time required to set up, specific technology required such as a certain type of server, a Mac etc Skills - Required technology skills, programming languages, other skills to operate or deploy the tool.
Maintenance - Resources required to maintain the tool or service including time and personnel, frequency of maintenance etc.
Documentation - Is documentation available? Is it comprehensive? It is multi-lingual? Online or offline? Who is the target audience?
Target audience - What audience can be served using this tool (age, demographic, region etc.) Reach - Projected reach of the tool. Are there external factors that will affect reach of this tool (geographic, language, cost, required
partnerships?)
Cost to end-users - If the output of this tool requires interaction by end-users, what are their costs? (hard costs, time required for users to learn interface, language, specific mobile platform etc.)
Some of these factors already seem to overlap so feedback would be welcome. Reminder as well that this list is incredibly preliminary!
Best regards,
Steph
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